I don't believe in evil. It's a word I use, certainly, because words are shortcuts and we all take the short way round from time to time, but that's...
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Flinn celebrates the book musical, but also takes the time to explain how and why great shows succeed -- and why the book musical is almost exclusively a thing of the past. His discussion on why choreographers should be the only people allowed to direct musicals is provocative (and I don't agree with him) but it reveals key truths about the art form. The book also provides a fine reference guide to the sung and unsung heroes of the musical stage - composers, lyricists, choreographers, performers. For theatre buffs, this book is invaluable.
Martin is well known as a writer and actor, but for a few years in the late 1970s he was a comedy god, making three platinum albums and performing hundreds of sold-out arena shows. This is an unsparing but also unsentimental look at how he created that act, drawing on his interests in magic, the banjo, philosophy, and art, set against his unhappy family life and his nomadic days as a young performer and writer. Martin is smart enough to be able to comment on the nature of his act, even if he may not have understood it at the time, and honest enough to keep the reader enthralled. This is an exceptional book about both finding your voice and balancing your public and private personae.
Funny, thoughtful, and deeply affecting. This is, first, a memoir about how a baby-boomer only child deals with the death of both of his parents, and there are valuable ruminations about dealing with both the practical and emotional impact surrounding death and dying. Second, more enjoyably, it is a memoir about living with great people, and it makes the humorous and affectionate point that the things that make great people great can be incredibly annoying when you live with them every day.
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A perceptive and comprehensive look at the elusive man one heartbeat away from the presidency. Gellman's reporting is astonishing, compiling the bits and pieces of Vice President Cheney's actions and writings into a coherent portrait of a man driven by a deep devotion to secrecy and loyalty, a philosophical attachment to extensive executive power, and a fear of catastrophe so great that he is willing to sacrifice law and peace to defend against it. This book is only competently written, but dazzlingly reported. Indispensable to understanding the man.
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An incomparable book about the life of a player in today’s NFL. Fatsis undergoes the preparation needed to play in the NFL, earning the respect and trust of his new teammates. And by describing that regimen with perception and vividness he allows the reader to experience the life of an NFL player: the boredom and intensity, the hard work and goofing around, the things players can control and the things they can’t. He experiences the difference between performing in practice and performing under pressure. He experiences the arbitrary forces that lead teams to sign, cut, and re-sign players, as well as the rigidity that led to the nickname No Fun League. He experiences the disconnection between the players’ lived experience and the media’s reports of it, and shows the reader why players are so far removed from fans. Happily, Fatsis is able to recognize and describe the forces that separate the insiders from the outsiders in an engaging and engrossing manner. Today’s NFL is very different from the NFL described by George Plimpton in his classic Paper Lion, and this book is a worthy successor. It may even be a better book. A Few Seconds of Panic deserves the widest possible audience: fans, of course, but also athletes, coaches, and the media.
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Dr. Rico has commented on (24) products.
The Great American Book Musical: A Manifesto, Monograph, and Manual by Denny Martin Flinn
Dr. Rico, November 18, 2009
Flinn celebrates the book musical, but also takes the time to explain how and why great shows succeed -- and why the book musical is almost exclusively a thing of the past. His discussion on why choreographers should be the only people allowed to direct musicals is provocative (and I don't agree with him) but it reveals key truths about the art form. The book also provides a fine reference guide to the sung and unsung heroes of the musical stage - composers, lyricists, choreographers, performers. For theatre buffs, this book is invaluable.Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
Dr. Rico, November 11, 2009
Martin is well known as a writer and actor, but for a few years in the late 1970s he was a comedy god, making three platinum albums and performing hundreds of sold-out arena shows. This is an unsparing but also unsentimental look at how he created that act, drawing on his interests in magic, the banjo, philosophy, and art, set against his unhappy family life and his nomadic days as a young performer and writer. Martin is smart enough to be able to comment on the nature of his act, even if he may not have understood it at the time, and honest enough to keep the reader enthralled. This is an exceptional book about both finding your voice and balancing your public and private personae.Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley
Dr. Rico, October 15, 2009
Funny, thoughtful, and deeply affecting. This is, first, a memoir about how a baby-boomer only child deals with the death of both of his parents, and there are valuable ruminations about dealing with both the practical and emotional impact surrounding death and dying. Second, more enjoyably, it is a memoir about living with great people, and it makes the humorous and affectionate point that the things that make great people great can be incredibly annoying when you live with them every day.(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman
Dr. Rico, December 11, 2008
A perceptive and comprehensive look at the elusive man one heartbeat away from the presidency. Gellman's reporting is astonishing, compiling the bits and pieces of Vice President Cheney's actions and writings into a coherent portrait of a man driven by a deep devotion to secrecy and loyalty, a philosophical attachment to extensive executive power, and a fear of catastrophe so great that he is willing to sacrifice law and peace to defend against it. This book is only competently written, but dazzlingly reported. Indispensable to understanding the man.(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL by Stefan Fatsis
Dr. Rico, October 9, 2008
An incomparable book about the life of a player in today’s NFL. Fatsis undergoes the preparation needed to play in the NFL, earning the respect and trust of his new teammates. And by describing that regimen with perception and vividness he allows the reader to experience the life of an NFL player: the boredom and intensity, the hard work and goofing around, the things players can control and the things they can’t. He experiences the difference between performing in practice and performing under pressure. He experiences the arbitrary forces that lead teams to sign, cut, and re-sign players, as well as the rigidity that led to the nickname No Fun League. He experiences the disconnection between the players’ lived experience and the media’s reports of it, and shows the reader why players are so far removed from fans. Happily, Fatsis is able to recognize and describe the forces that separate the insiders from the outsiders in an engaging and engrossing manner. Today’s NFL is very different from the NFL described by George Plimpton in his classic Paper Lion, and this book is a worthy successor. It may even be a better book. A Few Seconds of Panic deserves the widest possible audience: fans, of course, but also athletes, coaches, and the media.(2 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
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